1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to boating and is directed towards improvements in loading and unloading a boat onto and off a boat trailer employing the practices of floating the boat onto or off of the boat trailer while it is partially submerged in the water.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,138 discloses a boat latching device having a latching mechanism for latching boat assembly onto a trailer. In this patent the latching mechanism includes a pawl member having an abutment lock portion adapted to abuttingly engage and retain a bow stop bar within a recess defined by the latching mechanism. The pawl member is pivotally supported and is rotatable between a locked and an unlocked position. The pawl member includes a weight mass structure operative for causing an abutment lock portion to be pivotally urged into a position to partially block the recess created by the latching mechanism. The weight structure tends to cause the pawl member to move in a counterclockwise direction to a stop position in which the bow stop bar is retained within the recess. To position the pawl member in an unlocked position, the weight mass structure is canted rearwardly of the pawl member pivot axis. The pawl member of this patent is gravity actuated and thus the bow stop bar can be unintentionally released from the locked position if there are any sudden or abrupt movements of the trailer, the vehicle for pulling the trailer, or the boat.